April 28, 2017

Hans A. von Spakovsky on the next Supreme Court nomination

Rumors abound. Chuck Grassley was the first that I heard talk about it in a news report. The rumor was that a Supreme Court justice will retire this summer. Ideally, that prospective retiree would be one of the justices who always side with the Democrat position. But if Grassley is in the loop on that then speculation that the prospective retiree is one of the conservative justices seems appropriate. That would be a wasted opportunity to get another originalist on the court.

Which of the justices will be the next to retire? Bloomberg says Kennedy.

But even if it is Justice Kennedy who resigns (and he is the justice the rumor mills are concentrating on), replacing a justice who is only a part-time conservative with a full-time conservative could make a significant and very crucial difference in the outcomes of the decisions that come before the Court.

Whoever the next departing justice is, President Trump must make sure the next Supreme Court justice is someone who believes in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights 100 percent of the time, not just when it is convenient to achieve the particular policy goal the justice wants.

And President Trump will need someone who doesn't care what the New York Times, MSNBC, or the Washington cocktail circuit says about him or her.

He needs a rock-solid, principled lawyer who understands that the U.S. Supreme Court is the last defense against an increasingly powerful, oversized, busybody government that seems to believe it has the right to dictate every aspect of our lives.